1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer security. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically classifying data based on the sensitivity of the data to facilitate providing security for the data.
2. Related Art
Databases often store data items which have varying levels of sensitivity. To determine whether a table includes sensitive data, an administrator typically analyzes data stored in the table to determine whether the data is sensitive. If so, the administrator can take appropriate action, such as restricting access to the table. However, the process of examining the data in a database can be time-consuming and tedious, especially if the database is large. Moreover, if the sensitivity level of the data changes, the process of analyzing the data may need to be repeated.
Furthermore, it is difficult to determine a priori whether an administrator who is classifying the data has a high enough privilege to examine the data because prior to examining the data, the sensitivity level of the data is unknown. Thus, in some cases, the number of administrators who can classify the data is small.
Hence, what is needed is a method and apparatus for automatically classifying data in a database without the problems listed above.